text:
What Is a Planet 13 Dispensary?
What is a Planet thirteen dispensary and how can I find one near me? Where can I find a Planet 13 near me? What products can I find at Planet 13? Check out the video below to find out! In addition to Planet 13 products, this dispensary will also feature Mike Tyson Weed. Here's a closer view. If you're new to marijuana, you may want to check out this article for more information. The following will give you an overview of the company's products and services.
What Is Planet 13 Dispensary?
If you're in the market for a cannabis dispensary, then you've probably wondered: What is Planet thirteen? This vertically integrated cannabis company in Las Vegas operates cultivation and production facilities in Nevada as well as an award-winning dispensary located in Orange County, California. The company is well-known for its innovative cannabis products. The company's shares trade on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the symbol PLTH.
The company has dispensaries in Nevada, Orange County, California and plans to expand into other markets. Their mission is to provide the best cannabis products, services, and experiences to customers. The Las Vegas location, for example, boasts one of the largest dispensaries in the world, and their light displays give their customers an exciting experience that is unique in the industry. Planet 13 dispensaries are open seven days a week. Most have a wide range of hours, which makes it convenient for both locals and visitors.
To gain access to the cannabis dispensary, you must have a valid medical card or recommendation. California law requires that you are at least 18 years old to purchase marijuana. It is also illegal to sell or give medical marijuana to anyone without a valid medical card and registered caregiver. For additional information about what makes Planet 13 a unique cannabis dispensary, visit its state page. They only accept cash and do not accept credit cards.
Planet 13 Near Me
Planet thirteen is a dispensary that offers medical marijuana to those who live in Los Angeles. The company is headquartered in Las Vegas, and its first California location opened in the spring. They hope federal legalization will allow them to open more dispensaries in Illinois, Florida, and other states. Planet 13's coCEOs spoke to New Cannabis Ventures about their expansion plans, current cannabis status, and how they plan on funding their stores.
Planet 13 is a popular Las Vegas dispensary. They have an outdoor giant sphere that emphasizes quality, knowledge, and atmosphere. Many customers have a positive experience at Planet 13, and the company offers discounts for out-of-state patients and those who live in Las Vegas. For those who want to enjoy a high-quality medical cannabis dispensary while visiting Las Vegas, Planet 13 is a great choice.
Mike Tyson: Planet 13
Mike Tyson, a heavyweight boxing champion, has launched his own line of cannabis products in Las Vegas. The line is called Undisputed 87, and is sold exclusively at Planet 13 Superstore, near the Strip. The Vegas heavyweight boxing champion has a long relationship with Vegas, including many of his high-profile fights. In fact, he became the Undisputed Heavyweight Boxing Champion there in 1987, when he beat Tony Tucker. During that time, Tyson held three heavyweight titles at once, including the world's biggest title at the time.
The partnership was announced on Jimmy Kimmel, a late-night talk show hosted by the boxing legend, and the company behind it, Tyson Ranch, said in a statement. On Planet 13, fans lined up to get a closer look at Iron Mike. The two men signed autographs, posed for pictures, and raffled memorabilia. The partnership is already adding a new dimension to the cannabis industry.
Planet 13 Products
Planet 13 has a wide selection of cannabis products that you can try. The award-winning company has cultivation and production facilities in Las Vegas and Orange County, California, as well as dispensary operations that are transforming the marijuana industry. Planet 13 is poised to be one of the most highly rated dispensaries in America with innovative products like infused edibles and lotions. The company's shares are currently traded on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the symbol PLNHF.
Planet 13 has many reasons to be visited, starting with its award-winning quality. They've gotten top marks for their dispensary experience and offer the highest-quality cannabis, infused products, and cannabis extracts. Their flagship dispensary in California is strategically located in Orange County. Medizin provides award-winning products, starting with their proprietary strand Chloe. Their cultivation process ensures that their cannabis is of the highest quality.
Planet 13 Edibles
If you are looking for an edible at a dispensary that offers cannabis, you've come to the right place. Planet 13 sells Kosmik cannabis edibles. Their award-winning Specialty line is sure to keep you coming back for more. Try out Karamel Apple, a green apple gummy with a peanut butter center, or Peanut Butter and Jelly, a grape gummy with real peanut butter in the middle. You might also want to try Supersonic S'mores, a marshmallow with chocolate in the middle.
Besides selling a wide variety of cannabis-infused products, you can also buy edibles at Planet 13. These delicious treats come in a variety flavors including chocolate, coffee, tea, and even gummies. Planet 13 is home to the largest cannabis dispensary in the world. It plans to open new locations in Florida and Illinois within the next few months. Customers will be able to enjoy an unmatched customer experience at their dispensary. While it doesn't have the largest inventory, the company has a commitment to high-quality cannabis products and services. Besides, Planet 13 operates upscale cannabis dispensaries that offer only the highest-quality products. In addition to selling a variety of cannabis products wholesale, Planet 13 also manufactures its own line of products.
Planet 13 Reviews
To visit the Planet 13 SuperStore Santa Ana, Calif., please show your ID. Although the store is a sensory bar it takes up only 40K square feet. The owner of the store is confident that the location will eventually be a destination. He hopes that the company will grow as the law for recreational marijuana changes. But if you have a negative perception of Planet 13, you should read some Planet 13 reviews to decide if the store is worth visiting.
Planet thirteen's philosophy is the first thing you need to know. They believe in the philosophy of vertical integration, meaning that they grow, test, and sell cannabis. They are based in Nevada and California but they are expanding rapidly into other states. They also have "Superstores" in Orange County and Las Vegas, and their stores are massive. They claim that Planet 13 is the world's largest cannabis store, and they have even built one right off the Vegas strip.
Jack Jackson Planet 13
The Planet thirteen cannabis dispensary is a massive warehouse filled with hundreds of cannabis-derived products. Visitors can also enjoy an interactive wall and laser-tipped spray cans. Planet 13 offers a variety of entertainment and events for all ages throughout the day. The space is located on a 112,000 square foot site. In addition to selling weed and cannabis products, the dispensary hosts live performances and art installations by Todd Moyer.
The dispensary's unique interior design is an interesting combination of modern and traditional styles. The high ceilings create 3D laser images while the aerial orb display features glowing globes that meander through the space. You can also find a full bar and a variety of specialty items in the space. You can't miss Planet 13's unique merchandise, which makes it a truly unique experience.
Planet 13 Gummies
Planet 13 is the newest California dispensary for cannabis. This vertically integrated company produces a variety of cannabis-infused products including HaHa gummies and leaf & vine concentrates. Plans call for a coffee shop, tasting room, and lounge on-site. Planet 13 anticipates that it will receive 2,000 customers per day. The cannabis company is also building a brand name that will be recognizable worldwide.
The company offers over 500 cannabis-based products including gummies and oils, as well as candy and other beverages. The dispensary is located near the Fashion Show Mall. Nevada residents can join the Planet 13 Local Loyalty Program to get 20% off regular-priced items and earn points. Out-of-state medical marijuana patients can enjoy a 10% discount at Planet 13 Dispensary. The dispensary has several retail locations in Southern California, including San Diego, San Francisco, and San Jose.
The company is headquartered in Las Vegas but its shares trade on the CSE in the United States and the over-the-counter in the United States. These companies are risky investments, especially since federal laws prohibit marijuana use in the United States. A company that is listed on Planet 13's Canadian Stock Exchange is cross-listed on America's over-the-counter markets. Interested investors can purchase Planet 13 shares through an international broker. It is best to seek the advice of a financial advisor before investing in any unregulated industry.


text:
We use alcohol in meat marinades all the time, but what if your food already had the taste without the wait?
The founders of Templeton Rye Distillery in Templeton, Iowa are trying to do just that by creating pork that tastes like their famous whiskey.
"We have a little motto here. My dad always told me, 'Nothing good happens after 12 p.m.' So, it seems like that's when this idea was probably thought of - after we had a few drinks," laughs the distillery's co-founder, Keith Kerkhoff.
He hopes the Templeton Rye Pork Project will be the exception to his dad's motto.
They're raising 25 pigs, born in early January 2014, on a farm in Woodward, Iowa, about an hour east of Templeton. Nick Berry, who has a Ph.D. in Animal Science focused on meat and eating quality, looks after the pigs. Berry works in the commercial pig industry for an animal health company, and he's a friend of the Templeton team.
The pigs are purebred Duroc, which Berry says are known for their meat quality and are a natural fit for the project.
Despite what you may think, the pigs are not drinking any whiskey. Instead, they're eating a distinct diet that incorporates the dry distillery grain, from the whiskey-making process, into the feed.
Kerkhoff says they're already getting a variety of inquiries about the pigs, from backyard pit masters to famous restaurant owners like Chicago's Stephanie Izard, winner of 'Top Chef.'
"I don't think we're going to have any problem getting rid of the 25 pigs," he says. They'll decide in June where the pigs will go.
Kerkhoff says their pork experiment has never been done before, and that's exactly why they're doing it.
"This is something somebody is going to do, and we want to be at the cutting edge of it, and I think we are," Kerkhoff said.
Berry says the project is a natural combination for Templeton Rye and their home-state's animal agriculture industry.
"I think it really falls in line with what their roots surround -- whiskey making and rural Iowa and the Midwest," adds Berry. "This project really fits right in line with a lot of their history and heritage."
The project also sends a message that's important to Templeton.
"The whole aspect of giving back to your community, giving back to your state and producing something that creates jobs," said Kerkhoff. "It's all about economic development."
"I would say my grandfather was probably outside the law a little bit," says Kerkhoff. "My grandfather was one of what we call the 'entrepreneurs' during Prohibition, that made Templeton Rye," Kerkhoff said.
"It got into the coffers of Al Calpone and that's where it got the name 'The Good Stuff,'" he said.
The 2014 team has a rebellious spirit to take some risks with their spirits, like the pork project.
The Templeton team plans to hold a tasting in Des Moines, Iowa at the end of June for members of the Templeton Rye Bootleggers Society. To join, click here.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
|Mozzarella in Carrozza
It may sound like simple hospitality, but it goes further than that. I have discussed the Italian people and their way of "living in the moment" before and this may be the very thing I love most about Italy. If we all made a conscious effort to do one random act of kindness for a stranger today the world would be a much better place. For many, something as simple as sharing an abundance of fruit is just as natural as saying buon giorno in the morning. One final example of Italian generosity is when I finally met the Baroness Cecilia Baratta who whisked me off on a 3 day adventure to her buffalo mozzarella farm in the Cilento. I was the ever grateful recipient of all her kindness as we explored her beloved country in the heart of Campania.
|The Coast
The Cilento shows the unknown side of Campania. A little gem that is best known as the Amalfi Coast's quiet neighbour. Not yet largely present on the tourist map, it is full of mozzarella farms and rolling hills covered in vineyards and olive trees. I want to share it with the world, but, at the same time want to keep the secret all to myself. It is the land of the buffalo, where the best mozzarella in all of Italy is produced. The extraordinary beauty of this area has been preserved for centuries thanks in part to its isolation which has left the gorgeous countryside unspoilt and local traditions preserved. To explain, Cilento and the Parco Nazionale del Cilento e Vallo di Diano is a protected Italian region that boasts 100km of coastline and a wild, mountainous interior sprinkled with historic villages. Much of it is a national park, the second largest in Italy, and is a Unesco world heritage site that sits not far south of the teeming holiday centres of Naples and the jet-setting Amalfi coast. As we drove we gazed at the rocky coastline falling into the blue sea with its hundreds of grottoes. Eventually it gave way to sun-baked hilltop villages and majestic undulating, chestnut and ilex tree forests. The wild interior is Cilento's trump card where you will find many hikers crisscrossing the landscape. The Cilento is a true slice of heaven on earth where nature meets up with history. It is wonderfully authentic.
Cilento is famous for its olive oil, one of the best in Italy, that has earned the denominational marking "Olio d'Oliva Extravergine Cilento DOP." Denominazione Origine Protetta (DOP) is a national designation defining agricultural products whose quality and reputation are specific to their geographical origin. Other specialties with this designation in the area are the white fig, the buffalo mozzarella and the artichoke of Paestum IGP.
|Tenuta Seliano
|Collecting Eggs at Masseria Eliseo
Seliano's setting is idyllic. It's an agriturismo of the purest kind where everything served at the table is produced on the farm, including the wine, olive oil and cheese. In fact from my room and the flower-filled balcony I could look out on to the very trees that the olives are harvested from. The views to the haze-shrouded coast were bewitching any time of day in this hypnotically peaceful spot. A few days of this and I was blissfully rested and refreshed. Agriturismo is an Italian term for what we might call a farm holiday or a form of agricultural tourism. In 1985, the Italian government passed a law encouraging farmers and landowners to convert their farmhouses or abandoned farm buildings into holiday accommodation. They are exactly what they claim to be, a working farm, surrounded by breathtaking natural beauty. Tenuta Seliano offered just what I longed for on an Italian vacation. An authentic Italian rural experience, the chance to live with an Italian family, and the opportunity to slow down from the normal tourist pace. The most difficult task each day was to decide how to spend my time, although Cecilia was the best guide in every respect.
Pretty soon it's time for an aperitif on the terrace in the dying sun, watching the lizards scuttle in and out of the masonry. I couldn't imagine being anywhere else in the world. And then dinner. I enjoyed a set menu every evening, devised and prepared single-handedly by a team of cheerful cooks and served at a communal table. I was in and out of the kitchen taking a cooking class as well as observing these talented ladies make homemade pastas and many other dishes. The food was authentic, gutsy, faultlessly executed, and richly satisfying...and of course, as with everywhere in Italy, what was on the table is only what is in season. I would go so far as to say it was some of the best food I had the opportunity to try in the country. Each night I sat at a long table with an eclectic group of people. These were particularly convivial and memorable evenings, a chance to meet people from all walks of life and every corner of the world. Artists, doctors, hitchhikers, Cecilia's sons Ettore and Massimino and family friends all sipping local wine and breaking bread together; each seeking a truly authentic Italian experience. The atmosphere is friendly and informal, feeling more like a relaxed stay with friends. It's everything a holiday should be!
|Pasta a limone
When I travel I have always taken hundreds, if not thousands, of photos. Long before blogging I was taking photos of the food at my table while on even the smallest of adventures. There's something so evocative to me about pictures of food and the power they have to vividly remind me of mouth-watering meals and moments that I've had on my travels. I can look at my culinary photos and remember exactly where I was, the scent of the dish placed in front of me, and the way the flavours opened up on my palate. In many cases the taste or smell of something in my past is capable of painting a picture with richer, deeper brush strokes than any snapshot in my photo album.
|Olives gathered from over 1,500 trees on the estate
Cheese makers transformed their milk into a variety of cheeses, notably mozzarella di bufala. By the early 17th century, random cheese making had taken a commercial turn, with one local farm keeping 3,000 buffalo for mozzarella and cheese production. The number of buffalo now in Paestum and its environs is seven times that, and among them are the over 800 fortunate buffalo that form the herd at Seliano.
Buffalo milk has roughly three times the fat of cows milk, which makes it decadently creamy and flavourful. It contains much less water and more protein and fat. This all makes for an exceptional cheese. The higher percentage of solids in the milk means you can get more cheese from a gallon of milk. The bummer is that water buffalo produce less milk than cows. A dairy cow will produce between 50 and 70 pounds of milk a day, while a water buffalo will produce 10-12 pounds a day. It is easy to see why it is so revered. From the leftover whey they make their highly prized butter and ricotta cheese.
The word mozzarella comes from "mozza", which means cut or chopped off. It has a round shape, a porcelain white colour and a slightly elastic consistency in the first 8 to 10 hours. Mozzarella is only the cheese weighing 200 to 600 grams, anything weighing less is a "bocconcino" (little bite). With fresh mozzarella you get a little pool of buffalo milk coating the plate after you've sliced open the ball. It's fantastic! Mouth-filling and saltier than the traditional, you taste sweet notes and a gentle tang, along with full, grassy flavours and a long, salted-butter linger. The texture is pleasantly delicate and yielding, but needs to be supple enough that it can be sliced. Here you need to consume mozzarella within two days if you want it at its best. Mozzarella di bufala seems like the reason the word "mouthfeel" was invented, with a depth of flavour that makes even the freshest hand-pulled artisanal cow-milk mozzarella taste like glorified string cheese.
"The first thing that hits you about this porcelain white cheese is the aroma: When you crack the container, savoury, milky notes fill the room. The flavour of this Italian classic cheese is big, Think zinfandel compared to a pinot noir. The mozzarella has a slight tang and a subtle taste of sweet hay and herbs. The forage in the buffalo pens smells of hay and herbs but most prominently of cinnamon. This is in fact due to the sweet spiciness of the corn, which is combined with alfalfa, grasses, herbs and, on occasion, finely ground tomato skins. "
Given its importance as a typical food product, the Campanian Mozzarella di Bufala exists under very strict rules of production, the regulation of which has pertained to the Consortium of Protection since 1981. The Consortium is the only organization recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry as having the official capacity to protect, uphold, appraise and promote Campanian Mozzarella di Bufala D.O.P.
On one day we ventured to the dairy where Seliano takes it milk to be transformed into cheese. The whole procedure of mozzarella production is fascinating. The procedure is multi-staged with each phase accomplished almost entirely by hand. We were fascinated by the moment when the cheese makers, working as a team of two or three, take the hot, stringy cheese by handfuls and cut it away (mozzare) from the larger mass, making smaller balls which they drop into vats of cool liquid. This takes on the appearance of a timeless dance, the cheese makers falling into step with one another as one pulls and the others push against him as if making taffy, and then reforming the cheese to keep it fluid and warm. The procedure concludes with the balls transferred to soak in a salty brine for no longer than fifteen to twenty minutes. The larger mozzarella are said to have the most flavour, but the smaller tidbits are my own personal favourite.
|Mozzarella di Bufala
Although mozzarella di bufala is best eaten as fresh as possible if you should have any leftovers, you're limited only by your culinary imagination and can use the cheese in many recipes. At its simplest, all it needs is a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil and a grinding of aromatic black pepper. In the classic Insalata Caprese, it is paired with ripe tomatoes and sweet basil and dressed with extra-virgin olive oil (traditionally with no balsamic vinegar or lemon). It is also essential to melanzane alla parmigiana (eggplant parmigiana), deep-fried half-moon pastries called panzerotti that also feature salami, and calzone. And, of course, pizza wouldn't be the same without mozzarella di bufala.
|Insalata Caprese
Most often it is fashioned from a couple of slices of bread with mozzarella in the middle, dipped and fried in oil. It's the Italian answer to the grilled cheese sandwich. Upon biting into these little bites of heaven, the melted cheese in the center became long and stringy. It is not an experience you will soon forget. They are of course best eaten while still hot!
When talking to my Italian friends and the Italian chef at our local Italian grocers they each suggested a sliced, airy white bread. So, only for this reason and the purpose of this experiment I followed their lead. But for the sake of experimentation I wanted to create several different variations so utilized whole wheat, white "Italian" sandwich bread and ciabatta. When I was 18, and in Rome, I had a similar snack sandwich made with slices of hardboiled egg that my friend Patti and I were drawn to time and time again that still haunts me. I gave it a try by layering a slice of hard boiled egg within my carrozza, but, the cheese used may have been a variation mozzarella since the same flavour profile was not there and the golden, battered and deep fried cheese sandwich of my youth is still elusive. Or perhaps my food memory has taken this dish to new unachievable heights. If anyone knows of this dish that was served everywhere around the coliseum, let me know.
|Mozzarella in Carrozza at Locanda del Marinaio in Amalfi
4 slices sandwich bread, crusts removed
3 to 4 ounces mozzarella cheese cut into ¼-inch-thick slices
¼ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup plain dry breadcrumbs (if using)
1 large egg, beaten
2 tablespoons freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese
3 tablespoons whole milk
Salt, preferably kosher
Freshly ground black pepper
Vegetable oil, for frying
Add ins - proscuitto, fresh basil leaves, hot pepper flakes, sliced hard boiled eggs, anchovy, pesto
1 cup Marinara Sauce (recipe below)
Cover 2 slices of the bread with the mozzarella slices, and top with the other 2 slices of bread. Carefully slice the sandwiches in half diagonally.
On a large piece of wax paper, place the flour on one side, and the breadcrumbs on the other.
In a shallow bowl, mix together the egg, Pecorino, milk, and salt and pepper to taste.
Dredge the sandwich triangles in the flour, and shake off any excess. Then dip them into the egg mixture, making sure that the sides are dampened also. Then coat them in the breadcrumbs, coating the sides as well. Let the triangles rest for 5 to 10 minutes, to let the breadcrumbs adhere well.
Heat a medium-size frying pan (large enough to hold all the triangles) over medium-high heat. Add oil to a depth of ¼ to ½ inch. When the oil is hot (test by putting a comer of one of the triangles into the oil—it should sizzle immediately), add the triangles and fry until the bread has browned, 1 to 1½ minutes. Turn to the other side and fry for another 1 to 1½ minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain. Serve immediately, with marinara sauce.
Hot pepper flakes
You are reading this post on More Than Burnt Toast at http://morethanburnttoast.blogspot.com. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to the author and or owner of More Than Burnt Toast. All rights reserved by Valerie Harrison.


text:
Report an abuse for productSondagarArts Men Formal Brown Genuine Leather Belt
SondagarArts Men Formal Brown Genuine Leather Belt
Vendor : sondagar artsSKU: SAB150
SondagarArts Men Formal Brown Genuine Leather Belt
Material : Genuine Leather Colour : Brown
Recommended wear: Formal Width-35 mm
Free Shipping , COD Available
Any Problem For Order Call On 8369053575
Delivery Within 3 To 4 Days
We Are Manufacturing Of Genuine Leather Goods Products. We Deal Directly To Online Customer. No Distributor No Wholesaler. So What You See. What You Get This Product In Lowest And Good Price. Be Happy To Purchase More Product.
Please Select The Suitable Size From Given Below Size Option
SondagarArts Men Formal Brown Genuine Leather Belt
This smart Branded belt is made up of high quality of genuine leather to last longer. Designed with cut-to-fit option you can either get it customised by your tailor or at home with a sharp pair of scissors. Use leather lotion every three months or frequently if you wear belt every day.
sondagar arts
Established in 1985 by Late Shri. Ratilal D Sondagar, Sondagar Arts has emerged as a preferred Manufacturers / Exporters in the market of Leather Products. Based in Mumbai, India, the company continues to excel as an Exporter and Supplier catering to a diverse clientele by offering a wide range of Men's Leather Belts, Leather Wallets and leather sets that reflect quality. The reason for the company's flourishing position in the market can be attributed to the commendable managerial skills and expertise of the current Proprietor Mr. Dharmendra Sondagar, son of Late Shri. Ratilal D Sondagar who comes with an experience who comes with an experience of 16 years in the industry. Why Us? Exclusive and genuine Leather Products Promise of the best quality Customization facilities for production and packaging On time deliveries Wide business network Affordable pricing Infrastructure The firm has state-of-the-art unit fully operational with the latest equipment for cutting, polishing, stitching and finishing of Leather Products. This helps in the production of standard as well as customized forms in a successful manner. Moreover, the capacious and well-maintained warehouse facilities enable the safe storage of finished products. Our Aim The main aim of the company is to make available the Leather Products at the most competitive price. We have a qualified team of specialists who have the expertise of producing exclusive Leather Products. We export the best quality Leather Gents Belts, Wallets, Sets etc. to various countries. Meticulously designed Belts and Wallets are widely admired by the global clients. Hence, we have been able to establish a name of repute among the prominent Leather Products Manufacturers, Exporters and Suppliers, based in India.


text:
As in his short piece Klangfarbenprobe for the Re Records quarterly many years ago, John here explores in two 30 minute pieces how much variety and structure is obtainable from a single pitch. Western ears are indoctrinated to listen through pitch, to find binding narratives in melody, harmony and their variations, the rest at best is secondary, at worst just colour. The reason so much Baroque music translates so easily to different instruments, including heavy metal guitar, is because it's the notes that really count. The notes and their ratios and their relationships. Harmony was considered part of a scared mathematics and the relations between pitches expressed absolute, fundamental cosmic realities. Pure music, the music of the spheres related directly to the Platonic forms, the unchanging verities that we can approach but never grasp. That's why it is the form that matters, the pattern behind the notes, and not the temporary body in which these are clothed. In the age of the Manufacturer and the Usurer - the age of Beethoven and after - while holding to the spiritual in theory, music was progressively seduced by the material. Orchestration came to matter more and more. And once sound recording was invented, the materiality of sound itself became an unegotiable fact. Varese, pre-eminently, relegated notes to a secondary position in his work, pursuing timbre, dynamic, mass, spatiality and contrast, but generally, all the way through to the late 1950s, especially under the sway of post serialism, notes continued to hold their own, even though their grip was slipping. That decade, however, saw two radical responses that recognised and between them reified the dilemma: In the left corner, John Cage shifted his attention to rhythm - which is the organisation of time and which, significantly, is made equally of sound and silence - for him pitch was just material to be poured into structured time; it could be anything - let the sounds be themselves; while, for La Monte Young, in the right corner, pitch became absolutely supreme. John Oswald follows neither route but approaches the problem from a completely different perspective. His work, initially closer to Schoenberg's famous short orchestra piece and Varese's explorations into dynamic, timbre and spatiality goes beyond these to an exploration of what happens when pitch becomes informationally redundant - or transparent - forcing other qualities of sound to be heard through it, and making thereby what is always missing or suppressed significant. By this simple device - the most original things are always this obvious and one wonders how come it took so long to reach them - the answer is, as always, that it takes a different kind of thinking to see the obvious. By this simple device of removing tonal data by levelling it, John is able to accentuate and make essential parts of hearing we take for granted and, when in art mode, largely ignore. He takes acoustic space, natural and un-natural sound, the outside world and the discourse of music - and by merging and flattening them arrives at strikingly unfamiliar listening aesthetic.
Of course, John's work with recordings has always been about listening - as well as to a certain extent about perspective, and both concerns are strongly represented here. His method of work involves gradually tuning every sound to a single pitch (an A). There are 10 audible octaves and so 10 degrees of this pitch with which to work. Two human performers are featured, a piano tuner and a cellist, the rest of the material is derived from a library of recorded sounds built up over time - pure sine tones, orchestral instruments playing A's, voices, environmental sounds: birds, weather, animals, insects, spaces - and so on. It is all - naturally or un-naturally - pitched to an A. This is the material. The second crucial technique employed throughout this piece is morphing: that is, gradually blending one thing into another. A note becomes a storm becomes a flock of birds - think of some of Trevor Wishart's extraordinary work in this area, except that here the pitch is uniform and the blend can, if desired, be almost imperceptible. A change of object or event becomes simply one of timbres and detail; to morph is effectively to crossfade very slowly. Sounds may gradually turn into one another, or be sunk inside one another like harmonics, to create shifting banks of timbres. An entire aviary of birds winds up at A and A becomes the aether in which they, and everything else, moves.
Because of the variety of sources and the individual recording of them, spatiality moves to the fore; there is much work here with soundscape, interior and exteriority, distance and shape. Such work with scale and reflection and with the sounds of weather and nature inevitably invokes a visual response, and John often speaks in narrative and visual terms in his interview, 'it's raining in the piano', 'a conical clarinet curls into a french horn and then straightens out into a didgeridoo', 'like a giant hummingbird' &c. But because the pitch is constant, our hearing is focused in an entirely unfamiliar way. He quotes Stockhausen's comparison between the filmic model of seeing a variety of things under a constant light as opposed to seeing the same thing continually under differing lights. Perspective, space and scale permeate this work, in a way I can not refer to any other work. In one section all 88 notes of the piano sound as an A. And how are we to hear this? John in his excellent and comprehensive accompanying interview points out that this could usefully be described as a shift in scale: the piano notes do not change, but the size of the piano does; the lowest note on the keyboard sounding the A would be strung in a 10 inch concert grand, the highest in one over 100 feet long. This is in some ways analogous to the effect of light speeds on length and time: the light is moving at a constant speed while objects shrink and elongate and time stretches and expands.
There are two versions of the piece on this CD, which is an indispensable work. Not merely a piece of music - or a parade of organised sounds - but a meditation on listening.


text:
Joliet Central High School Registration
Welcome to the Joliet Central High School online registration.
You will manage your participants upon registration from here, and receive important and relevant notifications from Joliet Central High School.
Register as a Parent below. You must be a parent/guardian to create this account and start the process. Please write down your login as you will use this to register each time.


text:
Five Big U.S. Banks Cut Mortgage Balances
LOS ANGELES | Five of the biggest U.S. banks have cut struggling homeowners' mortgage balances by $6.3 billion, part of a total of $26.1 billion in home loan relief provided under a landmark settlement over foreclosure abuses.
More than 309,000 borrowers received some form of mortgage relief between March 1 and Sept. 30, according to a report issued Monday by Joseph Smith, monitor of the settlement.
That translates to roughly $84,385 per homeowner, according to the report, which is based on mortgage servicers' own account of their progress as they move to comply with the settlement terms.
"The relief the banks have reported is encouraging," Smith said in a statement. He added that the banks won't get credit under the settlement until he can confirm their figures.
Smith said that $13.1 billion of the $26.1 billion in relief was in the form of short sales, in which lenders agree to accept less than what the seller owes on the mortgage.
Another $1.4 billion in relief was provided by refinancing 37,396 home loans with an average principal balance of $210,398. As a result, each borrower will save about $409 in interest payments each month, according to the report. Banks also had $4.2 billion worth of loans under trial modifications. That could lead to permanent reduction in loan balances of $135,223 per borrower.
While borrowers can benefit from having their monthly payments lowered, having a portion of their balance forgiven is especially helpful. That's particularly the case when their home is worth less than what they owe on their mortgage, so-called underwater mortgages.
All told, banks erased about $2.6 billion in first-lien loans and $2.8 billion in second-lien loans. That amounts to an average reduction of $116,929 for the 21,833 borrowers with first-lien loans. The 50,025 borrowers with second-lien loans saw their balances reduced by an average of $55,534.
Lenders also completed permanent reductions of about $1 billion before March 1, according to the report.
The federal government and state attorneys general for 49 states forged the $25 billion settlement in February with five banks: Ally Financial Inc., Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co.
The agreement will reduce mortgage loans for only a fraction of those Americans who owe more than their homes are worth. About 11 million households are underwater, and the settlement is expected to help about a million of them.


text:
Mithya – Movie Review
Read on for a review without spoilers.
Mithya is a dark film with dark humour. Everyone is saying it's a comedy, but it certainly isn't a rip-roaring comedy and it certainly isn't funny throughout. It's got funny parts, particularly in the first half, but most of the movie is serious. Actually I hardly found it funny but maybe it's because I have a different sense of humour!
The story is about VK (Ranvir Shorey), a struggling actor in filmdom. The movie starts off with VK stumbling from one insignificant role to another barely able to pay his bills. Shorey's acting is amazing. We can easily empathize with VK, a desperate, innocent, lovable, if slightly inept actor. I am not sure whether Shorey is good at comedy though. Wonder if that was why I didn't find the movie too funny!
We wonder where the story is going, and then…wham! By being in the wrong place at the wrong time VK's life takes a twist. Unexpected violent events catapult him into another world – a world of guns, terror and death. From then on it's all action and some of it is hilarious. The movie strongly reminds one of a Bollywood blockbuster but if I tell you which one, you will guess the story. Suffice to say that the subject that Mithya tackles is not all that original but despite that the story has a fresh feel and there are surprises in store. This is a kind of movie you'll enjoy best if you know as little as possible about it.
Neha Dhupia plays an important role in this film but her acting was very average. I think I wouldn't mind if I didn't see this actor on the screen again. Naseerudin Shah slips effortlessly into his role and as for Vinay Pathak, he was brilliant. He shines even in the small role that he has.
All in all, the movie has suspense and plenty of surprises in store. It's one of those low budget films with a real story and real acting. It's one of those films which shows the maturing of Bollywood. But no, this doesn't mean the story is believable or it doesn't have some strange coincidences! But the performances are subdued, the locales realistic and the story has a realistic end as well. The movie was stretched a little, it could have easily ended 20 minutes earlier (it's a 100 minute film) but if you want a taste of the new Bollywood, then go for it. It's not classy mind you, but it's good.
Interestingly, this movie is a search for one's identity, well, that is what Kapoor said he was trying to convey and I think he succeeded. The movie has layers and it's as deep as you want it to be.
But if you are looking for comedy or even a light movie without tension, this movie could be a mistake.
Related Reading: More Bollywood Reviews.
February 22, 2008 2:16 pm
I saw the movie a couple of nights earlier. As much as I liked the first half unhold, it just couldn't hold on to the "Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro" kind of dark sarcasm on the system. No, it is not a rip off of that magnificient piece of art, but it could have been better.
The protagonist should have been developed better. So could have been the end of it which was very very abrupt (less than 10 minutes for that to unfold). Overall a B- rating out of ABC & +/- ratings. It just couldn't hold on to the promise it showed a glimpse of in the begining.


text:
Use of cookies
This site uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. Google Analytics sets a number of ANONYMOUS cookies in order to evaluate your use of the site and compile reports for us on activity.
We will not use cookies to display advertising, pop-ups or other intrusive website features.
Google stores the information collected by the cookie on servers in the United States. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google's behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. For more information on the cookies set by Google Analytics please go to: http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/concepts/gaConceptsCookies.html..
This site also uses cookies which are necessary for the running of the site. These are covered in our privacy policy
Skip to navigation
Skip to main content


text:
Brisket is traditional Jewish American fare, but it need not be prepared from a "traditional" recipe. In fact, some "non-traditional" recipes enhance the culinary experience! Here are some of my favorites.
For a nice variation on the traditional:
Passover Brisket Recipe
Like most holidays Passover has lots of traditional foods, such as matzo ball soup, hard-boiled eggs and matzah, a type of flat bread. The holiday kicks off with two dinners in a row, where the story of Passover, the exodus from Egypt, is told. The main dish of the dinner is often brisket, a delicious and succulent type of pot roast perfect for larger groups. Here's a recipe adapted from Chicago caterer, City Provisions that uses red wine, mushrooms and dried cranberries. Serve it with plenty of mashed potatoes.
1 cup Cabernet Sauvignon
1 cup organic beef broth
1/2 cup cranberry juice
3 Tablespoons potato starch
1 large yellow onion, sliced
3 to 4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
1 4-5 pound brisket, trimmed
6 ounces large Portobello mushrooms, dark gills scraped away, caps thinly sliced
6 ounces of cremini or button mushrooms, chopped
1 cup dried cranberries
Kosher salt and cracked pepper
Preheat oven to 300°F.
In a medium sized bowl, whisk wine, broth, cranberry juice and potato starch. Pour into large roasting pan. Mix in onion, garlic and rosemary. Sprinkle brisket on all sides with Kosher salt and pepper. Place brisket, fat side up, in roasting pan. Spoon some wine mixture over the brisket. Cover pan tightly with heavy-duty foil.
Bake brisket until very tender, basting every hour, for about 3 hours. Remove from oven, transfer brisket to plate; cool 1 hour at room temperature.
Thinly slice brisket across grain. Arrange slices in pan with sauce, overlapping slices a bit. (Cover and refrigerate. To save time on the day of, the brisket can be made a day or two ahead of time)
Preheat oven to 350°F. Surround the brisket with the mushrooms and cranberries in the sauce. Cover pan with foil. Bake about 30 minutes or so, until the mushrooms are tender and brisket is heated through
Transfer sliced brisket and sauce to platter and serve. Garnish with a few more of the cranberries.
—–Amy Sherman.
For a very different taste:
Chef Emeril Lagasse's Passover Brisket
8 to 10 pound brisket
Garlic cloves
1 quart beef stock (unsalted or low salt)
3 large onions, sliced
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons Emeril's Original Essence, (recipe follows)
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup ketchup
1 cup chili sauce
1 cup brown sugar
Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.
Using a paring knife and your finger, stuff brisket all over with garlic. Place brisket in a baking dish or casserole and bake until browned on top, remove from oven, turn brisket and return to oven until browned on both sides. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Add enough beef stock to casserole to come up 1 inch on sides, cover with foil and bake one hour.
While brisket is cooking, heat a large skillet over medium high heat and saute onions in vegetable oil, stirring occasionally, until caramelized and most liquid has evaporated, about 20 minutes. Set aside.
Remove brisket from oven after one hour and add caramelized onions and all remaining ingredients, moving meat around to combine ingredients. Cover and continue to bake until very tender but not falling apart, another 2 to 3 hours. Remove brisket to a carving board and slice. Strain reserved cooking liquids and pour over sliced brisket. Brisket may be returned to casserole dish and allowed to cool, then served the next day. (Reheated in oven.)
Brisket is better if made a day in advance.
Essence (Emeril's Creole Seasoning):
* 2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
* 2 tablespoons salt
* 2 tablespoons garlic powder
* 1 tablespoon black pepper
* 1 tablespoon onion powder
* 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
* 1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano
* 1 tablespoon dried thyme
Combine all ingredients thoroughly and store in an airtight jar or container.
Yield: about 2/3 cup
If you'd rather make a very traditional brisket, here is a delicious recipe:
Baker's Best Passover Brisket
Baker's Best chef Geoff Skillman trims his own brisket, but butchers will do it for you. Don't eliminate all the fat (or you may not have any flavor left). You can make the brisket, chill and skim the liquid, and reheat the dish the following day.
1 whole brisket (6 to 7 pounds)
9 carrots, cut into 3-inch pieces
6 stalks celery, strings removed, cut into 3-inch pieces
8 medium onions, roots intact, cut into quarters
3 bay leaves
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 cups Concord grape wine
1 quart beef stock
1 cup honey
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 pint cherry tomatoes, stems removed
Set the oven at 350 degrees.
Trim excess fat from the brisket and place it in a large flameproof casserole. You can also use a deep roasting pan.
Place the carrots, celery, and onions around and on the meat. Add the bay leaves, garlic, wine, stock, honey, and plenty of salt and pepper.
Cover the pan with a double thickness of foil and transfer it to the oven. Bake the brisket for 3 to 4 hours or until it is very tender. Remove it from the oven.
Turn the oven temperature up to 450 degrees. Have on hand a rimmed baking sheet.
Remove the vegetables from the pan with a slotted spoon and set them on the baking sheet. Transfer to the oven and roast the vegetables for 40 minutes or until they caramelize at the edges.
Set the brisket on a cutting board and slice it diagonally against the
Reheat the meat by setting the flameproof casserole or roasting pan directly onto a burner. When it is hot, taste for seasoning and add more salt and pepper, if you like.
Arrange the meat on a large platter and garnish with the caramelized vegetables, cherry tomatoes, and roasted potatoes. Serve at once.
Any of the above, is absolutely delicious!!


text:
China jails 1, detains 70 to quell Tibet protests
- China is stepping up its crackdown on self-immolations
- Government has blamed burnings on hostile foreign forces
- U.S. State Department concerned about %27deteriorating human rights situation%27
BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese court sentenced a Tibetan man to 13 years in prison Friday for goading a monk to self-immolate, as Beijing steps up a crackdown on self-immolations aimed at protesting communist rule.
The sentence by a court in the northwestern province of Qinghai follows a news report that the Chinese government has detained 70 people in the province's ethnic Tibetan areas.
The sentence and detentions come as Beijing steps up efforts to blame the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, for protests in which nearly 100 Tibetan monks, nuns and lay people have set themselves on fire since 2009. The measures are a sign new Chinese leaders installed in November are not easing up on the Tibet issue despite the protests and international condemnation.
The protesters are calling for Beijing to allow greater religious freedom and the return from exile of the Dalai Lama, who lives in India.
Communist troops occupied the Himalayan region in 1951. Beijing says it has been part of China for centuries, but Tibetans say it was independent for much of that time. The Dalai Lama fled the region in 1959 as Chinese troops crushed protests against communist rule.
The latest detentions occurred in an ethnic Tibetan area of Qinghai province, which abuts Tibet, the government's Xinhua News Agency reported late Thursday. It said 12 of those detained were formally arrested but gave no details of the charges.
In a separate report, Xinhua said Phagpa, 27, was sentenced Friday after being convicted of murder and inciting split of the state. He encouraged a monk in Tongren county to burn himself last November, but the monk did not carry out the act after a family member discovered the plan and dissuade him from self-immolating, Xinhua said.
Phagpa had called self-immolators heroes because they sacrifice their lives for Tibetan independence and freedom, Xinhua said.
A woman from the duty office of the Huangnan Intermediate People's Court confirmed that a man was sentenced to 13 years in prison Friday, but she refused to give any details. Like many government officials in China, she refused to give her name.
Beijing now considers self-immolation a crime, and it has vowed to prosecute anyone who organizes, plans, incites, abets, hoaxes or helps others to self-immolate on murder charges.
Beijing has responded to the protests by sending in security forces to seal off areas and prevent information from getting out, arresting protesters' friends and seizing satellite TV dishes. Despite that, the pace of self-immolations accelerated in November as the ruling Communist Party held a pivotal leadership transition.
The government has blamed the burnings on hostile foreign forces that want to separate Tibet from the mainland.
"The Dalai Lama clique masterminded and incited the self-immolations," Xinhua said, citing a police official. "Personal information, such as photos of the victims, were sent overseas to promote the self-immolations."
The burnings have galvanized many Tibetans, who see them as selfless acts of sacrifice, making it hard for authorities to denounce the immolators.
On Thursday, the Voice of America, a U.S. government-financed broadcaster, denied accusations by Chinese state television and a government newspaper that it encouraged the burnings.
The U.S. State Department expressed concern about the "deteriorating human rights situation in Tibetan areas" and the use of criminal laws against people associated with protesters.
"Our concern is that there are deep grievances within the Tibetan population which are not being addressed openly and through dialogue by the Chinese government," said a department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland.
Nuland said Washington urged Beijing to "engage in a substantive dialogue" with the Dalai Lama.
"We continue to call on Chinese government officials to permit Tibetans to express their grievances freely, publicly and peacefully, without fear of retribution," she said.


text:
Morning Minutes: Dec. 19
Word of the Day
Vanilla vuh-NILL-uh (adjective) Flavored with the extract of the vanilla bean; lacking distinction; plain, ordinary, conventional - www.merriam-webster.com
Website of the Day
Product reviews
Still looking for Christmas gifts? Check out this site to get the best product reviews for the things you are thinking about buying this winter. Find information on electronics, home and garden, kitchen and food and much more.
Number to Know
7: Average amount of years it takes a Christmas tree to grow to cutable height, according to www.christmastree.org.
This Day in History
Dec. 19, 1975: John Paul Stevens is appointed a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Today's Featured Birthday
Actor Jake Gyllenhaal (32)
Daily Quote
"Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love!" - Hamilton Wright Mabie


text:
TV Show Winter (season 1, 2, 3) download full episodes and watch in HD (480p, 720p, 1080p .mp4, .mkv, .avi) quality free, without registration. New episodes of the popular television series for PC you can get from TopTvShows.CC. Latest episodes of Winter download here! Unlike kickass and Torrent our downloader site has all seasons with direct links and NO ADS! Lots of popular tv programs, which you can load to your PC, watch later or copy to mobile or tablet device.
Coming Soon..


text:
WASHINGTON — Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will step down from his cabinet position in the Obama administration and return to Colorado to spend time with his family, his office has confirmed to The Denver Post.
Salazar is expected to broadly announce his departure Wednesday. He has told President Barack Obama that he intends to leave his job by the end of March.
Salazar, 57, will have served a little more than four years in Obama's cabinet after being plucked from his beloved U.S. Senate seat serving Colorado in 2008.
His decision on whether to stay on at the helm of Interior or return to Colorado — and likely the less-glamorous but more-lucrative private sector — has been weighing on Salazar for a long time.
The president and the vice president have indicated they would like him to stay on at Interior.
"I want to thank Ken for his hard work and leadership on behalf of the American people," President Barack Obama said Wednesday. "As the Secretary of the Interior, Ken has helped usher in a new era of conservation for our nation's land, water, and wildlife. Ken has played an integral role in my Administration's successful efforts to expand responsible development of our nation's domestic energy resources. In his work to promote renewable energy projects on our public lands and increase the development of oil and gas production, Ken has ensured that the Department's decisions are driven by the best science and promote the highest safety standards. Ken has also made historic strides in strengthening our nation to nation relationship with Indian Country, helping to resolve longstanding disputes and make tribal communities safer and stronger. I have valued Ken's friendship since we both entered the Senate in 2005, and I look forward to receiving his counsel even after he returns to his home state of Colorado."
Obama, at a campaign event in Pueblo last year, called Salazar "one of the finest senators that the state of Colorado ever had, who is now doing a great job looking after the natural resources of this beautiful country of ours."
Last fall, Salazar spent much his personal time campaigning for Obama in Colorado. When badgered about his future by local and national reporters, he usually demurred, saying he wanted to get the president re-elected before thinking about it.
The secretary is not shy talking about how much he loves his job as steward of the country's public lands. He often says the Department of Interior is really the Department of America.
"As I think about my role as secretary of the Interior, it is perhaps the most wonderful job of any cabinet position in the United States," Salazar said in December. "I would not trade it for attorney general or Housing and Urban Development or Transportation because I would find those jobs a little boring."
But the pull of family obligations — he and his wife are primary caretakers of their 5-year-old granddaughter who has autism and is enrolled in a special school — was too great to commit to four more years, Salazar's office said.
His days in Washington are long. Some weeks he spends 16 hours a day traveling from one far-flung location to the other — from some pristine causeway in California to the Hurricane Sandy-ravaged New Jersey coast.
Salazar has said in his four years he is most proud of improving the relationship the federal government has with American Indians, cleaning up the oil and gas program after former departments were plagued with scandal and nepotism, and broadening a clean energy agenda.
The secretary established seven new national parks and 10 new wildlife refuges. He also launched 18 utility-scale solar energy projects on public lands. Before 2009, there were hundreds of pending applications but no construction projects approved.
He has also dealt with several natural and environmental disasters, including the explosion of a BP-operated deep water oil well, Deepwater Horizon, in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010.
Roughly 53,000 gallons of crude poured into the sea a day for nearly three months. While weathering criticism, Salazar issued a moratorium on new offshore drilling leases and launched an aggressive overhaul of safety standards for offshore oil and gas development.
In his push to grow regulations for domestic energy production on federal lands — particularly post Deepwater Horizon — he often tangled with House Republicans, many of whom have called him one of the worst Interior secretaries in the history of the United States.
Salazar usually fired back. In an April 2012 speech at the National Press Club, he called House Republicans "charter members of the Flat Earth Society" who lived in an imaginary energy world of "fairy tales."
"It's a place where up is seen as down, where left is seen as right, where oil shale seems to be mistaken every day in the U.S. House of Representative for shale oil, where record profits justify billions of dollars in subsidies," he said.
Salazar's future in politics — at least in Colorado — is unclear.
Many old Democratic hands would love to see him seek statewide office again, though the high-profile seats are tied up with other Democrats, Gov. John Hickenlooper and Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet.
Should Hickenlooper decide to run for — and win — a second term, he would be governor until 2018. Udall has already announced his 2014 re-election campaign and Bennet doesn't have to run again until 2016.
Allison Sherry: 202-662-8907, firstname.lastname@example.com or twitter.com/allisonsherry
About Ken Salazar
Home: Alamosa
Education: Colorado College, political science, 1977; University of Michigan Law School, 1981
Career highlights


text:
The next couple of months will bring techies a treasure trove of handheld devices. It started with the iPhone 5, which has already been selling like crazy, and will soon be followed by the upcoming Windows Phones from HTC and Nokia. The real onslaught, though, is about to begin. A massive helping of Android handsets will land at various carriers this fall just in time for the holiday season. Here are a few that stand out from the pack.
LG Optimus G/Nexus
Is it a Google Nexus phone? Or is it a standalone handset chock full of carrier-locked applications nobody asked for? AT&T officially announced that the LG Optimus G would be arriving someday soon, but the news was immediately overshadowed by rumors that the LG Nexus 4 is actually the handset to wait for. The Nexus 4 will feature the same specifications as its sister phone, including a 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 processor and a 1280×768 4.7" display, but it will run a stock version of Android. Also, there is some speculation that the phone will have a slightly different chassis depending on its carrier—the one appearing on Sprint will apparently have rounder edges, while the other on AT&T will appear more rectangular. What's still unclear, however, is whether or not it will be the flagship phone that Google will use to announce Android 4.2.
HTC One X+
The plus sign in its name means that the HTC One X+ is a beefier version of its predecessor, the HTC One X. With a Tegra 3 1.7GHz quad-core processor fueling the 4.7" display, the One X+ continues the trend of bigger handsets this quarter. The phone will feature Jelly Bean with HTC Sense 4+, and will reintroduce Sense Online, a backup utility for HTC Android handset users which was shut down in April. Almost subtly, HTC revived the Sense Online site, and it looks like it's ready to use for HTC users outside of the United States. It'll be interesting to see if the revamped service adds any value when compared to the third-party backup utilities available in the Google Play store—or to Apple's iCloud.
Motorola Droid Razr Maxx HD
Due out next week on Verizon's network, Motorola's super-thin Razr Android phone will also feature a gargantuan 4.7" screen, along with a 3300 mAh battery to power it. Compared to the HTC One X+ and Optimus G/Nexus's 2100 mAh battery, the Razr Maxx HD appears to be more properly matched with its high-resolution display because of its battery capacity. We can also imagine how hot a battery pack like that could get with such a thin piece of plastic surrounding it, and we wouldn't want to be holding the phone while it's charging.
Samsung Galaxy Note II
Is it a phone, or is it a tablet? Or is it a phablet? Is that even a thing? Which market the Galaxy Note fits into best is still a question, but the Note has taken off since its introduction a year ago. This second iteration is bigger and it's easier to hold up to your ear. It also boasts a hefty amount of processing power—a 1.6Ghz quad-core Exynos 4412 with 2GB of RAM—and looks much more phone-like than the original Note. Fortunately, it also comes with Android's latest operating system, Jelly Bean.
Sony Xperia TL
The 4.6" (Sony couldn't be bothered to bump it up to 4.7 like the rest of the smartphones features in this roundup) LTE Xperia TL will be available on AT&T and is basically a re-branded Xperia T phone with a new model number. It wil come with a 1.5Ghz dual-core S4 processor, which puts it a bit behind its quad-core competitors, and it will be preloaded with Ice Cream Sandwich. Sony is also including a 13-megapixel camera with a 720p HD front-facing camera, which it will likely pitch as the phone's main selling point. Frankly, we're still waiting for Sony to prove its relevancy in the mobile handset market, and we're not sure that an Android phone with older specifications topped off by a high-megapixel camera will do it.
Which one should you hold out for?
The first thing to keep in mind is that there is no guarantee as to which handset will actually receive Android updates after launch. For now, it's safe to say that the most future-proof phone would be whatever flagship phone is announced at Google's rumored November event, where it is believed the company will officially announce Android 4.3.
There is also a big difference between the rumored LG Nexus 4's quad-core Snapdragon S4 processor and the HTC One X+'s Tegra 3. Both do power management much differently, and initial benchmarks are already showing the Snapdragon to be considerably faster.
Obviously, we can only assume which handset would perform better and which merits passing up based on the listed specifications. For now, know that these are the handsets on our radar, and we'll be keeping an eye out to help you decide which ones are worth your upgrade dollars.


text:
The Invasion Movie Review
If you love Nicole Kidman you are going to love this movie. This sci-fi thriller may have bombed in the United States (it was released there on the 17th) and got lukewarm reviews…but the film is not all that bad. And it was kind of fun seeing it on the very first day of its release in India. By the way, its an adult movie over here, and that must be because of the scary scenes.
To enjoy this movie, it's important to remember that it's a third re-make of Jack Finney's sci-fi novel Invasion of the Body Snatchers. So, nothing really new. It is believed to be far less scary than the orginal 1956 version.
The movie starts off with a lot of special effects – a space shuttle landing with an explosive bang on the earth and with it some aliens – in virus form! And yes you guessed it. They are the body-snatchers. No specific reason is given and one assumes that the virus simply wants to procreate and multiply.
Nicole Kidman, who plays the role of Carol Bennell, a psychiatrist, gets wise to the aliens pretty quickly (maybe she can read minds as well as cure them!) And well, this movie is all Kidman's and that is probably the reason why she accepted it. It's a heroine oriented movie, where a woman with a child fights an impossible battle to save herself and her child from getting infected by the alien virus. This virus transforms the personality of the host to such an extent that he or she turns into a zombie.
Carol/Nicole has a divorced husband called Tucker (played by Jeremy Northam) and he is shown getting infected right at the start of the movie (but we don't know how he is connected to Kidman at the time). Once we know that, the suspense begins. Will she get infected? Will she able to protect her son? Will she and her son die?
A seemingly disjointed shot right at the start of the movie is one where Carol is shown barging into a pharmacy, desperately looking for a medicine to keep her awake. This is supposed to hook the viewer…keep him wondering why this woman wants to stop herself from falling asleep. Even later a lot of the suspense is woven around this…will she fall asleep or not…and if she does, what will happen?? So much so that she has to tell her son, who is but a child, to give her a hard jab in the heart in case she does fall asleep. Pretty nasty. And so are some of the infection-in-progress scenes. If you don't mind the gooey stuff – fine.
The writers tried to give some 'deep' meaning to the movie by bringing in a Russian diplomat (played by Roger Rees) into the scene. He meets Carol at a party and pontificates on how bad violence is and how entrenched it is in human beings…but our brilliant psychiatrist gives him a fitting reply! That human beings are after all human beings and are preferable to zombies! This was supposed to give some sort of philosophical twist to the story by saying that emotion (and the violence that goes with it) is what humanity is all about and that is what the newly formed zombies/aliens lack. This scene did not ring true somehow.
Danial Craig is around, playing Ben, Nicole's best friend, although there is just a little hint of a romance. He looks like a hunk…but his acting is average. Not that he has much of a chance to show his acting skills…it's Kidman's movie through and through. She not only looks ethereally beautiful, but enacts every scene with the right mix of drama and panache. One can understand why this actor won an Oscar. However, one cannot help feeling that she was wasted in this movie.
The action scenes (believed to have been inserted later) are the kind one has seen a hundred times before. The car chase was terribly passé.
The end was disappointing. I was expecting something new, something different…sure there were attempts to give a 'scientific' kind of end to the movie but the science was in passing. All that stuff about the 'vaccine' was very superficially handled. Guess this movie wasn't really science fiction in the true sense. It was a thriller.
It had a happy ending ofcourse… 🙂
Thrillers are great and I love to watch them in theaters, but I think this is one movie which is okay to watch at home. No, it wasn't boring. It was quite enjoyable in fact, specially the first half. But without Kidman and Craig…well…its nothing.
Share this post:digg it|kick it|Email it|bookmark it|reddit|liveIt
geremy permalinkJanuary 6, 2008 9:36 pm
ummmmm at the end, the very end, where the credits roll? was a new strain of virus born or did it die with the big white poof?


text:
Be who you are 💕
yunbo city http://t.co/Q6LM50bH
New Post
This website uses cookies to provide you the best experience. Review our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service to learn more.
Only users 16 years or older may use We Heart It.
Be who you are 💕
yunbo city http://t.co/Q6LM50bH
Sign in with Facebook or Twitter to start your gallery.
Sign in with Facebook Sign in with TwitterDon't have Twitter or Facebook? Skip this step!
Have a We Heart It account?Log in now


text: The following Watch Anime TV Show Pokemon (2019) Episode 97 English Subbed today has been released in high quality video at 9Anime,Watch Latest Pokemon (2019) Episode 97 Eng SUB Online. Bookmark your favorite Pokemon (2019) for regular updates. Stay with us 9 Anime to watch the latest Anime Show Updates. Please bookmark our site to watch ad free Anime in High and HD Quality. Mobil ödeme bozum


text:
Inside Dolby Surround 7.1
Just when you think they're all done adding more channels to sound systems, they add a couple more. The June 18 premiere of Toy Story 3 also marked the premiere of Dolby Surround 7.1, a technology that allows a commercial cinema to add two additional channels of sound to the 5.1 channels they already have. The existing left, center, right, left surround, right surround, and low-frequency effects channels have been augmented with left back surround and right back surround channels. Dolby Surround 7.1's additional channels don't require any additional speakers, though-they employ the theater's existing array of back surround speakers.
According to Stuart Bowling, worldwide technical marketing manager for Dolby Laboratories, "Dolby Surround 7.1 provides four discrete surround zones, allowing the mixer to uniquely place audio with more definition and improve directionality in panning through 360 degrees around the theater. It allows mixers to add more definition to both 2D and 3D content, and raises the experience of 3D viewing by allowing the mixer to place sounds discretely that tie in with the 3D visuals."
As any home theater enthusiast can tell you, this development brings commercial cinemas up to the standard of the best home theaters, which already enjoy 7.1 through the Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio technologies available on Blu-ray Disc.
Unlike many past theater sound system upgrades, Dolby Surround 7.1 doesn't require herculean effort on the part of the theater owner. In fact, it's easier and cheaper than most home theater upgrades. "For theaters that are currently wired for Dolby Digital Surround EX, the transition to 7.1 is a simple one that can be accomplished with a software upgrade and a $100 audio cable," Bowling said. As of July 15, 938 theaters worldwide had already converted to Dolby Surround 7.1.


text:
Static Bubblegum Double and Single Tray Combination Storage Unit, with a coloured top and ply-effect edging. Delivered assembled, complete with castors (not fitted) and trays. Maple Finish.
Trays are available in a range of colours and 4 sizes (see below).
All Monarch furniture units come with a 5 year manufacturer's warranty.
Height (mm):
Width (mm):
Depth (mm):
Goods are built to order, and cannot be cancelled once the order is placed with the supplier. Redelivery—if you are not in when delivery is attempted, there is a redelivery fee. If goods no longer wanted, there is also a restocking fee. See terms and conditions for full details.
Regular Price: £718.80
Sale Price Excl. Tax: £539.00 Incl. Tax: £646.80


text:
Many eye problems that affect infants, children, and adolescents require clinical care by a doctor or other healthcare professional. Click on the links below to learn more about this topic.
Vision Overview
Age-Appropriate Vision Milestones
Eye Examinations and Visual Screening
Types of Visual Screening Tests for Infants and Children
Problems with Vision
For Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts members
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts is a leading provider of quality health insurance for residents of Massachusetts. Our main goal is to make health care cost-effective by offering health insurance solutions for individuals, families, and large and small businesses at affordable rates.
Our Vision — Making Quality Health Care AffordableOur Promise — To Always Put Our Members First
To learn more about our Massachusetts health plans, please visit our Plans & Products page, where you can compare Massachusetts health insurance plans, buy health plans online, and get Mass health insurance quotes.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts also offers insurance, pharmacy coverage, and Medicare Plans for seniors; life and disability insurance through Indigo Insurance Services (a wholly owned subsidiary); and insurance for individuals aged 18-26 years. Learn more about our other insurance plans and Medicare plans, or contact a sales representative today.


text: Filter by Amenity Free Wi-Fi Computer Access Printing & Copying Research Help Proctoring Makerspace Outdoor Seating Storytime Voting Location Private Study Areas Retail Nearby Public Transit Access Career Center Park/School Nearby Meeting Rooms Free Faxing Main Library - CLOSED FOR CONSTRUCTION 310 North Tryon Street Charlotte, North Carolina 28202 (704) 416-0101 More Info Sugar Creek 4045 North Tryon Street, Suite A Charlotte, North Carolina 28206 (704) 416-7000 More Info Group Visits Interested in visiting one of our branches with your school or community group? Read through our guidelines for a successful visit. Branch Holidays The Library is closed on the following holidays: New Year's Day Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Good Friday Easter Sunday Memorial Day Juneteenth (Observed) Independence Day Labor Day Indigenous Peoples' Day/Staff Development Day Veterans Day Thanksgiving & Day After Thanksgiving Christmas Eve, Christmas Day & Day After Christmas (includes Dec. 23-27)


text:
Morning Jolt: Asteroid to pass near Earth today
In the news
Anasteroid about the length of half a football field will fly near Earth today, but don't worry, scientists say, it won't hit us. "No Earth impact is possible," Don Yeomans of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory told CNN. Even if this asteroid hit Earth, it wouldn't cause enough damage to wipe out life as we know it - it would only level an area about two-thirds the size of Rhose Island, CNN said.
Happening today
There are several big movies opening today: "A Good Day to Die Hard," an R action movie in the "Die Hard" franchise, again starring Bruce Willis; "Beautiful Creatures," a PG-13 fantasy film being called the new "Twilight"; and "Escape from Planet Earth," an animated PG film.
Gas update
Gasbuddy.com reports that the average price of a gallon of gas is $3.600. Last year at this time it was $3.484.
Motivational quote
"Look at what you've got and make the best of it. It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness." - Proverb
Watercooler talk
Here's today's adorable video: a newborn cuddling with a basset hound.
GateHouse News Service


text:
AHDRA - Virginia Motorsports Park 2008
Racing motorcycle images from the S&S Jim McClure Nationals, Virginia Motorsports Park, Petersburg, VA, on 9/20/08 and 9/21/08. All images are cropped as 8x10. You may certainly purchase other sizes, but will have to crop and shape them at checkout. Please leave comments here, or EMAIL ME with any questions. MikeRead More
98 / 474


text:
From Angus to Trump: When TV Stars Attack The Hands That Feed Them
Executives at Warner Bros. TV and CBS didn't see this one coming. Nor did Two and a Half Men boss Chuck Lorre. As a matter of fact, no one did.
Angus T. Jones, who has played Men's Jake Harper since 2003, had always been a mild-mannered young star who mostly avoided press and shunned the limelight. So when a video emerged on YouTube of the 19-year-old actor saying, "If you watch Two and a Half Men, please stop. I'm on Two and a Half Men and I don't want to be on it. Please stop watching it. Please stop filling your head with filth," it stunned everyone - and became a major news story.
A combination of social media, a 24-hour news cycle, aggressive tabloid websites and modern technology (like phone cameras) makes it easier than ever for celebrities to go rogue in front of the masses.
"Stars now have the ability to reach their fan base directly and instantaneously by firing off the first thought that pops in their heads," says entertainment lawyer Aaron Moss. That's been a boon for outlets hungry for any morsel of celebrity news, but it's causing headaches in Hollywood boardrooms - and giving public relations executives a workout.
"It's part of the world we live in," says Fox Entertainment president Kevin Reilly, who admits that his new American Idol judge Nicki Minaj has been a bit of a handful so far. "You want your stars expressing themselves and sometimes they kind of freestyle a bit. I think the controversy that went on behind Idol is going to be good for us. [But] there's a point where it can get out of control."
Everyone remembers when Charlie Sheen got to that point. Last year, the actor was fired from Men after a public meltdown that included making anti-Semitic slurs against Lorre and doing interviews where he appeared unhinged.
More recently, Donald Trump went on a political tirade that many people, including some inside NBC, believed hurt the already waning The Apprentice brand. Trump hasn't criticized his own show, but he took on NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams after the anchor made a few flip comments about Trump during Election night. Trump responded by calling him a "dummy," among other things.
Community star Chevy Chase has also gone public with his displeasure over his show, which he will depart at the end of Season 4. Original Criminal Minds star Mandy Patinkin left the CBS drama show because he was uncomfortable with its violent content, although he didn't reveal his displeasure until after his exit. The actor later said the violence of Criminal Minds' story lines "was very destructive to my soul and my personality."
This summer America's Got Talent judge Sharon Osbourne got into a very public feud with NBC, claiming that her son, Jack, was fired from the reality show Stars Earn Stripes - even though NBC said he was never officially cast. Osbourne left America's Got Talent at the end of the season, burning bridges along the way. "I never want to hear from them again," she told The Hollywood Reporter. "I really don't like NBC, and that's why I wouldn't go back... They treat their talent like sh--!"
Speaking of unscripted TV, disgruntled reality stars (past and present) aren't hard to come by, particularly after their time in the spotlight ends - think of Jon & Kate Plus 8 star Jon Gosselin or former Real Housewives of New York City cast member Jill Zarin, both of whom went on to trash their former shows in the press. TLC took the rare step of filing a lawsuit against Gosselin, accusing him of violating the show's confidentiality agreements. (Gosselin filed a countersuit; both sides eventually settled.)
Then there's former Blue Bloods actress Jennifer Esposito, who's currently engaged in a public feud with CBS over her employment on the show. Esposito, who asked her bosses for a lighter schedule due to her celiac disease, has accused the network of "absolutely shameful behavior" after the two sides couldn't agree on her workload and she was placed on indefinite leave.
In many of these cases, the actors may be in violation of a non-disparagement clause in their contracts. "A lot of this clause is designed to ensure that if you have a show that contains spoilers, the actor doesn't give away all the secrets," Moss says. "You also try to prevent the disparagement of the show or the other actors. But even if you have that clause, it's not often going to be in the studio or network's interest to fire somebody over it. That will be huge disruption, and it may lead to a bigger decline in ratings and more damage. Charlie Sheen said a lot before there was any legal action taken."
That's where public relations execs come in. "We quickly mobilize as a team with the agent and manager, fixing the damage with the studio and network," says crisis PR expert Howard Bragman. "We craft the correct words to placate the bosses. We must explain to the client that their feelings may be real and legitimate, but there are more appropriate forums - in their shrink's office - for venting. If Angus was paying any attention to Charlie Sheen's antics, he must understand that the studio and network consider most actors replaceable."
As for Jones, it was no secret the star had grown more religious in recent years. But when his video with doomsday preacher Christopher Hudson made the rounds, some observers wondered whether the actor - who makes more than $300,000 an episode - was being manipulated.
On his blog, former Cheers and M*A*S*H writer Ken Levine called Jones an "incredibly ungrateful confused young man who has just committed career suicide," adding that he would "write [Jones] out of the show immediately and sent him on his holy way. His character is now in the Army anyway. Time to ship out, soldier!"
Jones' character has already been seen less this season due to that Army storyline. And Men could easily survive should he opt not to return next year (contracts for Jones, Ashton Kutcher and Jon Cryer all expire at the end of this season).
Ultimately, Jones followed the textbook on making amends. He quickly hired a new publicist, Eddie Michaels, and issued a boilerplate mea culpa: "I apologize if my remarks reflect me showing indifference to and disrespect of my colleagues and a lack of appreciation of the extraordinary opportunity of which I have been blessed. I never intended that."
Producers not involved with Men say that's the way to go. "You have to blow past it, acknowledge it and apologize," says Chernin Entertainment's Katherine Pope. "Everybody has their 'whoops' moment."
As long as Jones doesn't pull a stunt like this again, Moss agrees that all will be forgotten. "As the studio and network, you take the high road and move on without ever mentioning it."
CBS CEO Leslie Moonves doesn't appear quite ready to completely forget, however. At a Tuesday morning breakfast meeting, Moonves told an audience that Jones' status on the show isn't quite resolved. According to Forbes, Moonves noted "we took this boy who started with us when he was eight years old. Now he's making over $300,000 per week, which is not a bad salary for a 19-year-old kid. By the way, he's still collecting his $300,000 per week." Still, "after going through what we went through with Charlie Sheen, it's been a piece of cake."
Subscribe to TV Guide Magazine now!
View original From Angus to Trump: When TV Stars Attack The Hands That Feed Them at TVGuide.com
Other Links From TVGuide.com
- American Idol
- The Apprentice
- Two and a Half Men
- Charlie Sheen
- Chevy Chase
- Mandy Patinkin
- Angus T. Jones
- Criminal Minds
- Donald Trump
- Sharon Osbourne
- Brian Williams
- America's Got Talent
- Jon & Kate Plus 8
- Chuck Lorre
- The Real Housewives of New York City
- Community
- Jon Gosselin
- Jill Zarin
- Kevin Reilly
- Blue Bloods
- Nicki Minaj


text:
Compare opinions and buy at the best price!
Contact Diplotop team
The main brands
The best products
The most reviewed products
The new products
|References starting with letter A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
All Rights Reserved.
Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners.


text:
HOUSTON (AP) — Andre Johnson caught a screen pass from Matt Schaub and ran 48 yards for the winning touchdown in overtime as the Houston Texans rallied to beat Jacksonville 43-37 on Sunday.
Schaub threw a career-high five touchdown passes, completed a franchise-record 43 passes and finished with 527 yards passing, second most in NFL history. Warren Moon also threw for 527 yards for the Houston Oilers in December 1990 against Kansas City.
Norm Van Brocklin holds the record with 554 for the Rams in 1951.
Johnson caught 14 passes for 273 yards, both career highs. The Texans (9-1) won an overtime game for the first time at Reliant Stadium.
Chad Henne threw a career-high four touchdown passes in relief of injured Blaine Gabbert for the Jaguars (1-9). Rookie Justin Blackmon had 236 yards receiving.
ATLANTA (AP) — Matt Ryan overcame a career-worst five interceptions, guiding Atlanta to its only offensive touchdown in the fourth quarter in a sloppy win.
The Falcons (9-1) turned it over a total of six times, but Michael Turner scored on a 1-yard run with 6:40 remaining to give Atlanta its first lead of the game. Ryan set up the score with four completions for 64 yards, including a 9-yarder to Tony Gonzalez on third-and-5 at the Arizona 10.
Coming off a bye, Arizona (4-6) lost its sixth straight game. The Cardinals tried to bolster their anemic offense by switching quarterbacks, replacing John Skelton with rookie Ryan Lindley, but Larry Fitzgerald couldn't hang on to a fourth-down pass after Ryan's fifth pick.
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Dan Bailey kicked a 38-yard field goal in overtime and Dallas overcame a critical fumble by Tony Romo that sparked a wild ending.
Bailey's winning kick with 6:07 remaining in OT came after both teams punted once in the first overtime game at Cowboys Stadium. Bailey hit a tying 32-yard field goal with 2 seconds left in regulation.
Dallas (5-5) rallied from a 13-0 halftime deficit and went ahead 17-13 on Romo's 28-yard pass to Dez Bryant.
A fumble by Browns rookie Brandon Weeden on a sack appeared to put the Cowboys in control, but Romo gave it right back with a fumble on another sack.
The Cowboys made one goal-line stand in the final minutes, but the Browns got another chance and went ahead 20-17 on Weeden's 17-yard pass to Benjamin Watson.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Jacoby Jones returned a punt for a touchdown, Justin Tucker kicked two field goals and Baltimore took control of the AFC North with a victory over Pittsburgh.
The Ravens (8-2) moved two games in front of the Steelers (6-4) by shutting down Pittsburgh's offense, which sputtered without injured quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
Byron Leftwich, making his first start in more than three years, completed 18 of 39 passes for 201 yards and an interception. He ran for a score but was also sacked three times.
Baltimore's Joe Flacco wasn't much better, completing 20 of 32 passes for 164 yards, but the Ravens didn't need Flacco to dominate to beat the Steelers for the third straight time at Heinz Field.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Josh Freeman threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Dallas Clark in overtime to cap a comeback.
It was Freeman's third touchdown pass of the game for the Buccaneers (6-4).
Carolina appeared to have the game in hand after a 29-yard touchdown pass from Cam Newton to Brandon LaFell put the Panthers (2-8) up 21-10 with 4:34 left in the game. But after a 40-yard field goal by Connor Barth, the Panthers were forced to punt, and Freeman led the Bucs 80 yards on seven plays in 50 seconds with no timeouts.
He finished the drive with a 24-yard touchdown pass to Vincent Jackson between three defenders with 12 seconds left. Freeman went back to Jackson for a 2-point conversion on a slant route to send the game into overtime.
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — The Patriots used three scoring passes from Tom Brady, two touchdowns on interception returns and another on a punt return to match a team single-game scoring record.
The first matchup between three-time Super Bowl winner Brady and star rookie Andrew Luck was no match.
The Patriots (7-3) won their fourth straight game and extended their lead in the AFC East to three games. The Colts (6-4) had their four-game winning streak stopped by the NFL's best offense and one of its worst defenses.
This win was the Patriots' most complete in a season in which they've averaged 35.8 points per game and lost their three games by a combined margin of four points.
The 59 points equals the team mark set in a 59-0 win over the Tennessee Titans on Oct. 18, 2009.
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Drew Brees threw three touchdown passes and Malcolm Jenkins returned an interception for another score to get the Saints back to .500.
Lance Moore caught two touchdown passes and Mark Ingram ran for a score as the Saints (5-5) won for the fifth time in six games and are in position to make a late-season playoff run despite the season-long distraction from the bounty scandal.
The Raiders (3-7) lost their third straight game under first-year coach Dennis Allen as their banged-up defense got picked apart by Brees' precision passing. Oakland has allowed 135 points in those defeats, the most in a three-game span for the franchise since allowing 141 in the first three games in 1961.
Brees finished 20 for 27 for 219 yards, extending his own records by throwing a touchdown in his 53rd straight game and completing 20 passes for the 46th straight game.
DENVER (AP) — Peyton Manning threw for three touchdowns and Von Miller had three sacks to take the league lead with 13. Denver took a three-game lead in the AFC West by sweeping the Chargers.
Manning threw for 270 yards. He got off to a slow start, throwing an interception that Eric Weddle returned for a score and an early 7-0 lead. But the Broncos (7-3) took a 10-7 lead early in the second quarter and never trailed again.
Manning won his 148th regular-season game as a starting quarterback, tying John Elway for second on the all-time list. Brett Favre has 186.
The Chargers (4-6) lost for the fifth time in six games.
LANDOVER, Md. (AP) — Robert Griffin III threw four touchdown passes, and Washington broke a three-game losing streak.
Griffin completed 14 of 15 passes for 200 yards and also ran 11 times for 85 yards. He threw for scores of 6, 49, 61 and 17 yards — one in each quarter.
Philadelphia's Nick Foles was 21 for 46 for 204 yards in his first NFL start, and his first two series ended with interceptions. Foles was starting in place of Michael Vick, who suffered a concussion in last week's loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
The Redskins improved to 4-6. The Eagles (3-7) have dropped six straight, accelerating the countdown toward the possible end of Andy Reid's 14-year tenure as coach.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Mark Sanchez directed a turnover-free offense and Bilal Powell ran for the first two touchdowns of his career as the Jets ended a three-game losing streak.
Chaz Schilens scored on a 25-yard reception and Nick Folk kicked a pair of 51-yard field goals for the Jets (4-6), who were outscored 58-16 the previous two games. The Jets overcame a controversial practice week with several anonymous players quoted in a newspaper report disparaging the ability of backup quarterback Tim Tebow, who had a handful of snaps but was no factor.
Brandon Gibson caught a pair of short touchdown passes for the Rams (3-6-1), who committed three turnovers and are in an 0-4-1 slump. St. Louis' defense hasn't forced a turnover in five straight games, tying the NFL's longest such slump since 1950 according to STATS LLC.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Andy Dalton threw for 230 yards and accounted for three touchdowns and A.J. Green caught a touchdown pass in his ninth straight game.
Green finished with six catches for 91 yards in another dazzling performance, Mohamed Sanu had a scoring grab and BenJarvus Green-Ellis ran for 101 yards and a touchdown as the Bengals (5-5) won their second straight following a four-game losing streak.
Cincinnati now plays its next four games against teams with losing records.
Jamaal Charles had 87 yards rushing for Kansas City (1-9), but that was the only highlight for a team that lost its seventh straight amid a quiet crowd at Arrowhead Stadium.


text:
December 29th, 2012
My Take: If you hear God speak audibly, you (usually) aren't crazy
Editor's Note: Tanya Marie ("T.M.") Luhrmann is a psychological anthropologist and the Watkins University professor in the department of anthropology at Stanford University in Stanford, California. She is the author of "When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God."
By T.M. Luhrmann, Special to CNN
(CNN)—In the Bible, God spoke directly to Abraham. He spoke directly to Moses. He spoke directly to Job. But to your neighbor down the street?
Most people reading the ancient scriptures understand these accounts of hearing God's voice as miracles that really did happen but no longer take place today, or maybe as folkloric flourishes to ancient stories. Even Christians who believe that miracles can be an everyday affair can hesitate when someone tells them they heard God speak audibly. There's an old joke: When you talk to God, we call it prayer, but when God talks to you, we call it schizophrenia.
Except that usually it's not.
Hearing a voice when alone, or seeing something no one else can see, is pretty common. At least one in 10 people will say they've had such an experience if you ask them bluntly. About four in 10 say they have unusual perceptual experiences between sleep and awareness if you interview them about their sleeping habits.
Follow the CNN Belief Blog on Twitter
And if you ask them in a way that allows them to admit they made a mistake, the rate climbs even higher. By contrast, schizophrenia, the most debilitating of all mental disorders, is pretty rare. Only about one in 100 people can be diagnosed with the disorder.
Moreover, the patterns are quite distinct. People with schizophrenia who hear voices hear them frequently. They often hear them throughout the day, sometimes like a rain of sound, or a relentless hammer. They hear not only sentences, but paragraphs: words upon words upon words. What the voices say is horrid—insults, sneers and contemptuous jibes. "Dirty. You're dirty." "Stupid slut." "You should've gone under the bus, not into it."
That was not what Abraham, Moses and Job experienced, even when God was at his most fierce.
For the last 10 years, I have been doing anthropological and psychological research among experientially oriented evangelicals, the sort of people who seek a personal relationship with God and who expect that God will talk back. For most of them, most of the time, God talks back in a quiet voice they hear inside their minds, or through images that come to mind during prayer. But many of them also reported sensory experiences of God. They say God touched their shoulder, or that he spoke up from the back seat and said, in a way they heard with their ears, that he loved them. Indeed, in 1999, Gallup reported that 23% of all Americans had heard a voice or seen a vision in response to prayer.
These experiences were brief: at the most, a few words or short sentences. They were rare. Those who reported them reported no more than a few of them, if that. These experiences were not distressing, although they were often disconcerting and always startling. On the contrary, these experiences often made people feel more intimate with God, and more deeply loved.
In fact, my research has found that these unusual sensory experiences are more common among those who pray in a way that uses the imagination—for example, when prayer involves talking to God in your mind. The unusual sensory experiences were not, in general, associated with mental illness (we checked).
They were more common among those who felt comfortable getting caught up in their imaginations. They were also more common among those who prayed for longer periods. Prayer involves paying attention to words and images in the mind, and giving them significance. There is something about the skilled practice of paying attention to the mind in this way that shifts—just a little bit—the way we judge what is real.
Yet even many of these Christians, who wanted so badly to have a back-and-forth relationship with God, were a little hesitant to talk about hearing God speak with their ears. For all the biblical examples of hearing God speak audibly, they doubt. Augustine reports that when he was in extremis, sobbing at the foot of that fig tree, he heard a voice say, "Take it and read." He picked up the scripture and converted. When the Christians I know heard God speak audibly, it often flitted across their minds that they were crazy.
In his new book, "Hallucinations," the noted neurologist Oliver Sacks tells his own story about a hallucinatory experience that changed his life. He took a hearty dose of methamphetamines as a young doctor, and settled down with a 19th century book on migraines. He loved the book, with its detailed observation and its humanity. He wanted more. As he was casting around in his mind for someone who could write more that he could read, a loud internal voice told him "You silly bugger" that it was he. So he began to write. He never took drugs again.
Now, Sacks does not recommend that anyone take drugs like that. He thinks that what he did was dangerous and he thinks he was lucky to have survived.
What interests me, however, is that he allowed himself to trust the voice because the voice was good. There's a distinction between voices associated with psychiatric illness (often bad) and those (often good) that are found in the so-called normal population. There's another distinction between those who choose to listen to a voice, if the advice it gives is good, and those who do not. When people like Sacks hear a voice that gives them good advice, the experience can transform them.
CNN's Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories
This is important, because often, when voices are discussed in the media or around the kitchen table, the voices are treated unequivocally as symptoms of madness. And of course, voice-hearing is associated with psychiatric illness.
But not all the time. In fact, not most of the time.
About a third of the people I interviewed carefully at the church where I did research reported an unusual sensory experience they associated with God. While they found these experiences startling, they also found them deeply reassuring.
Science cannot tell us whether God generated the voice that Abraham or Augustine heard. But it can tell us that many of these events are normal, part of the fabric of human perception. History tells us that those experiences enable people to choose paths they should choose, but for various reasons they hesitate to choose.
When the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. sat at his kitchen table, in the winter of 1956, terrified by the fear of what might happen to him and his family during the Montgomery bus boycott, he said he heard the voice of Jesus promising, "I will be with you." He went forward.
Voices may form part of human suffering. They also may inspire human greatness.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of TM Luhrmann.
soundoff (7,767 Responses)
About this blog
The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.